Now there’s a bipartisan reason for taxpayers to fume over fees paid to the lawyers that Republican Gov. Chris Christie hired to clear Republican Gov. Chris Christie in the George Washington Bridge scandal.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutchfield’s take in the sports betting litigation was three times the $1 million that taxpayers reportedly will be billed for that hard-hitting Bridgegate report.

The Star-Ledger of Newark has reported that the state attorney general’s office spent $29 million overall on outside counsel last year, much of which went to law firms with close ties to Christie or the Republican Party. In fact, the lead Gibson Dunn attorney in the sports-betting case is Theodore Olson, who represented George W. Bush in that famous (or infamous) Florida presidential recount case in 2000.

It’s unsavory, but not unusual, for the administration in charge in Trenton to parcel out legal work to political friends. A more pertinent issue is: Why isn’t the AG’s office doing more of this work on its own? Hired guns should be rare, except when there’s a conflict of interest. The Star-Ledger reports that the $29 million was the most paid to private law firms since 2008.

Osborn, a former U.S. solicitor general, surely is qualified to represent New Jersey in federal court against the sports leagues that hypocritically want to keep our state from legalizing the betting action on which the leagues thrive. New Jersey voters OK’d sports betting in 2011; the federal law limits sports bets to Nevada, Delaware, Oregon and Montana. It’s an inexplicably dumb law. That said, a federal appeals court last fall rejected New Jersey’s claim. In February, the state appealed to the Supreme Court.

We’ve always been uncomfortable with taxpayers funding this fight instead of casino operators who would benefit most from this wagering. Now that we’re paying for a lot more than some overnight stays for a deputy attorney general, we’d be better off trying harder to get the federal ban knocked out legislatively.